Girl stabbed in France by man trying to ‘make sacrifice for Ramadan’

A teenage girl was seriously injured in a stabbing attack in western France when a man assaulted her on the street. The attacker, who has a history of psychiatric problems, claimed that he needed to make “a sacrifice for Ramadan.”

The girl, 19, was stabbed two times in the wrist and once in abdomen, Rennes prosecutor Nicolas Jacquet told journalists, adding that her wounds are not life-threating.

The girl’s assailant told a witness that he was a Muslim. He was immediately detained by police at the scene of the crime and later told officers that he was obeying voices in his head that had ordered him to make a sacrifice for Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting that began on June 6.

“Voices told him that he had to make a sacrifice on the occasion of Ramadan,” Jacquet told AFP.

The attacker, 32, was assessed by a medical specialist immediately after his arrest and sent to a psychiatric hospital. The Rennes prosecutor said that the man had already received special treatment at psychiatric hospitals several times.

The assailant later told investigators that he was being treated for schizophrenia and was supposed to receive an injection on Tuesday. An enquiry has been opened into attempted murder.

The attack came just a day after another attacker killed a police officer and his partner in the town of Magnanville, 50 kilometers from Paris. The murder was later classified as a terrorist attack. The assailant, who was identified as 25-year-old Larossi Abballa, had pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.

Police also found a list of other potential targets at the site of the killing near Paris that included the names of public figures, rappers, journalists, and police officers, Molins added.